Validated reference architecture for Citrix XenDesktop on Cisco UCS with X-IO's Hybrid Storage Array. This document covers performance differences between XenDesktop 7.5 MCS and PVS provisioning services.
X-Pod for VDI Reference Architecture Enabled by Cisco UCS, VMware Horizon Vie...X-IO Technologies
X-Pod for VDI Reference Architecture Enabled by Cisco UCS, VMware Horizon View, and ISE 740 Hybrid Storage Array
Providing a simple yet best of breed converged infrastructure for virtualized desktop solutions
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX is an all-inclusive platform, suitable for rapid deployment of a virtual environment, such as Citrix XenDesktop 7.5. The integrated components of the VRTX means your business has a centralized management console for the necessary data center components that support VDI environments. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX and XenDesktop set up, configured, and deployed VDI users easily. The addition of Dell Wyse terminals demonstrates how your end-users can access your XenDesktop VDI environment with efficient hardware and little administrative effort. The combination of Dell PowerEdge VRTX and Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 can offer a unified, efficient, and simple enterprise-value VDI solution for your business, but without the resources and commitment need for supporting an enterprise data center.
Insider's Guide- Building a Virtualized Storage ServiceDataCore Software
This document discusses how storage virtualization can enable storage to be delivered as a dependable service through a software layer called a storage hypervisor. A storage hypervisor translates complex storage hardware into a centrally managed resource that can be dynamically allocated. It addresses issues like inefficient storage management, high product costs, and lack of flexibility. It allows organizations to manage more storage capacity with fewer administrators, keep hardware in service longer, and purchase less expensive gear. It also contributes to data protection and provides predictability in the face of changing technologies like server virtualization, desktop virtualization, and cloud computing.
WGZ BANK uses Cisco FlexPod to virtualize their datacenter and deploy virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) for their employees, improving workforce mobility and productivity. The FlexPod solution, which includes Cisco UCS Blade Servers and Nexus switches integrated with VMware and Citrix software, cut login times by over 90% and reduced costs for desktop management. It also improved IT agility and simplified software upgrades and provisioning new desktops.
Presidio's Data Center Practice focuses on delivering advanced data center solutions through virtual data centers (VDCs) to help customers reduce costs and complexity while improving service levels. Presidio specializes in VMware, Cisco, and EMC technologies and can rapidly deploy VDCs using its expertise in server virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure, converged networks, unified computing, storage, and backup/recovery solutions.
The document describes test results of deploying a Citrix XenDesktop 7.16 VDI environment using Dell EMC XtremIO X2 storage. Key results include:
1) Management operations like provisioning 4000 desktops took 50-65 minutes, demonstrating efficient provisioning.
2) A boot storm of 4000 desktops completed within 10 minutes, showing rapid desktop startups.
3) LoginVSI testing, simulating user workloads, showed average VSI scores of 1096-1122, indicating responsive desktop performance.
The results establish XtremIO X2 as providing high performance, scalability and efficiency for VDI deployments of thousands of desktops.
Enterprise Desktops Well Served - a technical perspective on virtual desktopsMolten Technologies
This document discusses desktops as a service (DaaS) and the technical challenges of deploying virtual desktop solutions in an enterprise. It outlines recommendations for addressing challenges in areas like networking, storage, servers, offline access, and licensing. While DaaS currently delivers virtual desktop operating systems, the document predicts that technologies like rich internet applications will allow DaaS to move away from true desktop OSes. Further development is still needed for applications and cloud services to integrate seamlessly.
X-Pod for VDI Reference Architecture Enabled by Cisco UCS, VMware Horizon Vie...X-IO Technologies
X-Pod for VDI Reference Architecture Enabled by Cisco UCS, VMware Horizon View, and ISE 740 Hybrid Storage Array
Providing a simple yet best of breed converged infrastructure for virtualized desktop solutions
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX is an all-inclusive platform, suitable for rapid deployment of a virtual environment, such as Citrix XenDesktop 7.5. The integrated components of the VRTX means your business has a centralized management console for the necessary data center components that support VDI environments. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX and XenDesktop set up, configured, and deployed VDI users easily. The addition of Dell Wyse terminals demonstrates how your end-users can access your XenDesktop VDI environment with efficient hardware and little administrative effort. The combination of Dell PowerEdge VRTX and Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 can offer a unified, efficient, and simple enterprise-value VDI solution for your business, but without the resources and commitment need for supporting an enterprise data center.
Insider's Guide- Building a Virtualized Storage ServiceDataCore Software
This document discusses how storage virtualization can enable storage to be delivered as a dependable service through a software layer called a storage hypervisor. A storage hypervisor translates complex storage hardware into a centrally managed resource that can be dynamically allocated. It addresses issues like inefficient storage management, high product costs, and lack of flexibility. It allows organizations to manage more storage capacity with fewer administrators, keep hardware in service longer, and purchase less expensive gear. It also contributes to data protection and provides predictability in the face of changing technologies like server virtualization, desktop virtualization, and cloud computing.
WGZ BANK uses Cisco FlexPod to virtualize their datacenter and deploy virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) for their employees, improving workforce mobility and productivity. The FlexPod solution, which includes Cisco UCS Blade Servers and Nexus switches integrated with VMware and Citrix software, cut login times by over 90% and reduced costs for desktop management. It also improved IT agility and simplified software upgrades and provisioning new desktops.
Presidio's Data Center Practice focuses on delivering advanced data center solutions through virtual data centers (VDCs) to help customers reduce costs and complexity while improving service levels. Presidio specializes in VMware, Cisco, and EMC technologies and can rapidly deploy VDCs using its expertise in server virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure, converged networks, unified computing, storage, and backup/recovery solutions.
The document describes test results of deploying a Citrix XenDesktop 7.16 VDI environment using Dell EMC XtremIO X2 storage. Key results include:
1) Management operations like provisioning 4000 desktops took 50-65 minutes, demonstrating efficient provisioning.
2) A boot storm of 4000 desktops completed within 10 minutes, showing rapid desktop startups.
3) LoginVSI testing, simulating user workloads, showed average VSI scores of 1096-1122, indicating responsive desktop performance.
The results establish XtremIO X2 as providing high performance, scalability and efficiency for VDI deployments of thousands of desktops.
Enterprise Desktops Well Served - a technical perspective on virtual desktopsMolten Technologies
This document discusses desktops as a service (DaaS) and the technical challenges of deploying virtual desktop solutions in an enterprise. It outlines recommendations for addressing challenges in areas like networking, storage, servers, offline access, and licensing. While DaaS currently delivers virtual desktop operating systems, the document predicts that technologies like rich internet applications will allow DaaS to move away from true desktop OSes. Further development is still needed for applications and cloud services to integrate seamlessly.
G11.2014 magic quadrant for general-purpose diskSatya Harish
The document provides an overview of several vendors in the general-purpose disk array market, including their strengths and cautions. Key points:
- It outlines the strengths and weaknesses of vendors like AMI, DataDirect Networks, Dell, Dot Hill, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi Data Systems in this market.
- For each vendor, it discusses their products, strategies, and evaluates their positioning in factors like reliability, performance, partnerships, and market presence.
- The document aims to help I&O leaders understand vendor capabilities and align infrastructure visions with supplier strategies and abilities.
This document provides a design guide for implementing XenDesktop 7 on the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud. It outlines a sample architecture for a company called World-wide Co. that wants to host desktops and applications for its accounting department on Azure. The design includes Active Directory, SQL Server, and file servers provisioned in Azure, along with XenDesktop delivery controllers, shared workers, and VDI workers. NetScaler Gateway and StoreFront provide secure remote access via a site-to-site VPN between Azure and World-wide Co.'s on-premises network. The goal is to leverage Azure's infrastructure services to quickly deploy new desktop resources without large upfront capital costs.
Learn about Virtualization Performance on the IBM PureFlex System. the white paper shows that the IBM PureFlex system can deliver VM consolidation in a heterogeneous, self-contained environment capable of impressive levels of throughput performance. It can dramatically reduce time to production for virtualized data center application operations, providing multiple compute and operating system platforms, advanced storage, and integrated networking in a single manageable system.
When considering whether to upgrade to the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX or repurpose older hardware, the advantages of new hardware are clear. Not only do you get newer hardware that is faster and is better-equipped to handle the increasing demands of today’s business applications and workloads, but you also benefit from advances that make deployment and management easier than ever.
In our labs, we compared the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with four server nodes and shared storage and networking to a similar infrastructure using four legacy tower servers, external network switches, and an external SAN. Our testing revealed the following:
· PowerEdge VRTX took 78.5 percent less time and 150 fewer steps to configure and deploy out of the box compared to the legacy solution.
· PowerEdge VRTX It took less than 1 hour to unbox and configure into a highly available VMware vSphere cluster compared to over 4 hours on the legacy solution.
· Deploying the Dell PowerEdge VRTX used just a single management tool, the integrated Chassis Management Controller, whereas the tower solution required six separate management tools.
Choosing such a complete solution during your next server refresh can simplify infrastructure setup and configuration, boost performance through built-in high availability features, and potentially save your organization space and operating costs over the life of the hardware.
VDI with Dell EqualLogic hybrid arrays: A comparative study with the industry...Principled Technologies
To determine whether a storage platform would deliver acceptable virtual desktop performance, we created a VMware View virtual desktop pool of 800 virtual desktops (vDTs) hosted on a EqualLogic PS6110XS storage array, and another on the industry-leading SAN storage solution with a similar configuration. We instructed each virtual desktop pool to reboot all 800 vDTs, wait for an idle state, and run two sequential iterations of Login VSI medium workloads. Both iterations consisted of a 20-minute login storm, a 30-minute steady state, and a 15-minute logout period. We did not achieve a Dynamic VSImax for either storage platform.
Figures 9 and 10 illustrate our physical networks connectivity with respect to the storage solutions tested: We created a 10Gbps LAN with two stacked Dell Power Connect™ 8024F switches and a 10Gbps SAN with two stacked Force10™ S4810 switches. We installed a Dell PowerEdge M1000e chassis fully populated with Dell PowerEdge M420 blade servers. We configured six Force10 MXL switches to create three fabrics for the chassis, fabrics A, B, and C. We connected Fabric A to our data network and fabrics B and C to our SAN. Each of the Power Edge M420 server LOM NICs are on Fabric A, and each of the Mezzanine NICs are on Fabric B or C. We attached all storage including the EqualLogic PS6110XS array and the industry-leading SAN storage solution to our storage network.
Software Defined Storage Accelerates Storage Cost ReductionDataCore Software
IDC, a major global market intelligence firm, assesses DataCore in the Software-Defined Storage (SDS) space. DataCore is one of the leading providers of hardware independent storage virtualization software. Its customers are actively leveraging the benefits of software-defined storage in IT environments ranging from large datacenters to more modest computer rooms, thereby getting better use from pre-existing storage equipment.
This IDC Technology Spotlight discusses the emerging storage architecture of software-defined storage and how DataCore enables its customers to take advantage of it today.
Comparing performance and cost: Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs. legacy hardware solutionPrincipled Technologies
Keeping a legacy, disparate hardware solution instead of choosing the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX may cost you more than you realize. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX increased application performance over a legacy, disparate hardware solution across email, database, and file/print server simultaneous workloads while reducing power consumption by 19.8 percent. The VRTX did so in 70.6 percent less rack-equivalent space than the legacy, disparate hardware solution and with one-third as many cables, to reduce complexity and reduce the burden of space in small offices. Finally, despite a larger initial investment, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX could actually lower your total cost of ownership over years as much as 26.0 percent, delivering a solid return on your investment in less than three years.
As our test results show, investing in the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution could provide you with a compact solution to optimize application performance, reduce complexity, and even lower the total cost of your solution over its lifetime.
DELL EMC XTREMIO X2 CSI PLUGIN INTEGRATION WITH PIVOTAL PKS A Detailed ReviewItzik Reich
This document evaluates integrating Dell EMC XtremIO X2 storage with Pivotal PKS to provide persistent storage for containerized applications. It discusses how XtremIO X2 provides high performance and scalability for database and stateful workloads on PKS. The document then provides steps to install and configure the XtremIO CSI plugin to enable dynamic provisioning of storage volumes in PKS managed Kubernetes clusters. It also demonstrates deploying a PostgreSQL database as an example use case.
Comparing performance and cost: Dell PowerEdge VRTX with one Dell PowerEdge M...Principled Technologies
Keeping a legacy disparate hardware solution composed of nine older servers instead of choosing the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3 family may cost more than one would expect. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with an Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge M830 server could do the work of nine legacy servers running email, database, and file/print server workloads. The VRTX ran all nine workloads in VMs, achieving a slight performance boost on the database and file/print workloads while using much less datacenter space and reducing power consumption by 38.4 percent.
The VRTX achieved these savings using 88.6 percent less rack-equivalent space than the legacy disparate hardware solution and with one-third as many cables, to reduce complexity and reduce the burden of space in small offices.
Despite a larger initial investment, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with an Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge M830 server could actually lower the total cost of ownership over five years by as much as 48.5 percent, delivering a solid return on investment in less than two years.
As our test results show, investing in the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 v3 family could provide a compact solution to optimize application performance and reduce complexity at a lower lifetime cost than a legacy solution composed of nine older servers.
Storage Considerations for VDI - Scalar presentation at Toronto VMUG 2014Scalar Decisions
A look at some of the storage challenges that come with VDI, and some of the newer storage vendors in the marketplace that help address these challenges
Enterprise data-centers are straining to keep pace with dynamic business demands, as well as to incorporate advanced technologies and architectures that aim to improve infrastructure performance
Setting up a failover cluster on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a straightforward process. In very little time, you can deploy Dell PowerEdge VRTX with up to four M-series servers, switches, and storage in a redundant configuration using Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. By setting up a failover cluster on your compact Dell PowerEdge VRTX, you can maximize server uptime to keep your business moving.
This document describes testing of Hitachi Data Instance Director (HDID) to protect a Hitachi Unified Compute Platform HC V240 hyperconverged infrastructure running VMware vSphere. HDID provided agentless backups of VMs using VMware VADP and allowed cloning backups. Testing showed HDID can reduce backup windows and easily replicate backups within or outside the HC V240 chassis.
Benchmarking a Scalable and Highly Available Architecture for Virtual DesktopsDataCore Software
This paper reports on a configuration for Virtual Desktops (VDs) which reduces the total hardware cost to approximately $32.41 per desktop, including the storage infrastructure. This number is achieved using a configuration with dual node, cross-mirrored, High Availability storage. In comparison to previously published reports, which tout the storage infrastructure costs alone of VDI at from fifty to several hundred dollars per virtual machine, the significance of the data becomes self evident. In this report, storage hardware costs become inconsequential.
Offer faster access to critical data and achieve greater inline data reductio...Principled Technologies
Compared to a solution from another vendor (“Vendor B”), the PowerStore 7000T delivered a better inline data reduction ratio and better performance during simulated OLTP and other I/O workloads
VDI performance comparison: Dell PowerEdge FX2 and FC430 servers with VMware ...Principled Technologies
Replacing your legacy VDI servers with a new Intel Xeon processor E5-2650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge FX2 solution using VMware Virtual SAN can be a great boon for your enterprise.
In the Principled Technologies (PT) labs, this space-efficient, affordable solution outperformed a legacy server and traditional SAN VSAN by offering 72 percent greater VDI users. Additionally, it achieved greater performance while using 91 percent less space and at a cost of only $176.52 per user.
By supporting more users, saving space, and its affordability, an upgrade to the Intel-powered Dell PowerEdge FX2 solution using VMware Virtual SAN can be a wise move when replacing your aging, older infrastructure.
Meet database performance needs while reducing TCO with the Dell PowerEdge VR...Principled Technologies
Cloud WAN services can seem convenient for small businesses and remote offices, but they remove local control and can be more expensive over time. In our tests, the all-in-one Dell PowerEdge VRTX provided the necessary transactional database performance while saving up to 63.9 percent in costs over five years. When you’re looking for a reliable solution to run workloads in remote offices, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX has the potential to cost less than running databases from the cloud.
Dynamic Hyper-Converged Future Proof Your Data CenterDataCore Software
IT organizations are continuously striving to reduce the amount of time and effort to deploy new resources for the business. Data center and remote office infrastructures are often complex and rigid to deploy, causing operational delays. As a result, many IT organizations are looking at a hyper-converged infrastructure.
Read this whitepaper to discover that a hyper-converged approach is flexible and easy to deploy and offers:
• Lower CAPEX because of lower up-front prices for infrastructure
• Lower OPEX through reductions in operational expenses and personnel
• Faster time-to-value for new business needs
This document discusses a high-performance computing solution from ttec that combines GPU computing using NVIDIA Tesla and GRID cards with Nimble storage virtualization. The solution allows centralized storage and collaboration for engineering teams working on complex projects across remote locations. It provides improved security, performance, and total cost of ownership compared to other solutions through the integration of GPU workstations, NVIDIA virtualization technologies, Citrix and VMware virtualization, and high-performance Nimble storage. The solution was implemented for an automotive manufacturer to create a centralized VDI environment for development workloads with stringent CPU, RAM, IOPS and latency requirements.
Foursquare es una red social basada en la geolocalización que permite a los usuarios indicar su ubicación física al hacer un "check-in" y compartir recomendaciones sobre lugares. Los usuarios ganan puntos y medallas por descubrir nuevos lugares y pueden ver quién ha hecho más check-ins en un determinado sitio. Foursquare fue fundada en 2009 y ha evolucionado para ofrecer recomendaciones inteligentes de lugares basadas en los intereses y actividades de los usuarios.
Este documento presenta herramientas y buenas prácticas para que las organizaciones no lucrativas utilicen las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación de forma efectiva. Explica diversas herramientas digitales como páginas web, blogs, redes sociales y software libre, e incluye consejos sobre cómo implementarlas y gestionarlas. También cubre temas como la credibilidad de la información en internet, la difusión, las normas de conducta en la red y los derechos de autor. El objetivo es mostrar cómo las ONG pueden
G11.2014 magic quadrant for general-purpose diskSatya Harish
The document provides an overview of several vendors in the general-purpose disk array market, including their strengths and cautions. Key points:
- It outlines the strengths and weaknesses of vendors like AMI, DataDirect Networks, Dell, Dot Hill, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi Data Systems in this market.
- For each vendor, it discusses their products, strategies, and evaluates their positioning in factors like reliability, performance, partnerships, and market presence.
- The document aims to help I&O leaders understand vendor capabilities and align infrastructure visions with supplier strategies and abilities.
This document provides a design guide for implementing XenDesktop 7 on the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud. It outlines a sample architecture for a company called World-wide Co. that wants to host desktops and applications for its accounting department on Azure. The design includes Active Directory, SQL Server, and file servers provisioned in Azure, along with XenDesktop delivery controllers, shared workers, and VDI workers. NetScaler Gateway and StoreFront provide secure remote access via a site-to-site VPN between Azure and World-wide Co.'s on-premises network. The goal is to leverage Azure's infrastructure services to quickly deploy new desktop resources without large upfront capital costs.
Learn about Virtualization Performance on the IBM PureFlex System. the white paper shows that the IBM PureFlex system can deliver VM consolidation in a heterogeneous, self-contained environment capable of impressive levels of throughput performance. It can dramatically reduce time to production for virtualized data center application operations, providing multiple compute and operating system platforms, advanced storage, and integrated networking in a single manageable system.
When considering whether to upgrade to the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX or repurpose older hardware, the advantages of new hardware are clear. Not only do you get newer hardware that is faster and is better-equipped to handle the increasing demands of today’s business applications and workloads, but you also benefit from advances that make deployment and management easier than ever.
In our labs, we compared the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with four server nodes and shared storage and networking to a similar infrastructure using four legacy tower servers, external network switches, and an external SAN. Our testing revealed the following:
· PowerEdge VRTX took 78.5 percent less time and 150 fewer steps to configure and deploy out of the box compared to the legacy solution.
· PowerEdge VRTX It took less than 1 hour to unbox and configure into a highly available VMware vSphere cluster compared to over 4 hours on the legacy solution.
· Deploying the Dell PowerEdge VRTX used just a single management tool, the integrated Chassis Management Controller, whereas the tower solution required six separate management tools.
Choosing such a complete solution during your next server refresh can simplify infrastructure setup and configuration, boost performance through built-in high availability features, and potentially save your organization space and operating costs over the life of the hardware.
VDI with Dell EqualLogic hybrid arrays: A comparative study with the industry...Principled Technologies
To determine whether a storage platform would deliver acceptable virtual desktop performance, we created a VMware View virtual desktop pool of 800 virtual desktops (vDTs) hosted on a EqualLogic PS6110XS storage array, and another on the industry-leading SAN storage solution with a similar configuration. We instructed each virtual desktop pool to reboot all 800 vDTs, wait for an idle state, and run two sequential iterations of Login VSI medium workloads. Both iterations consisted of a 20-minute login storm, a 30-minute steady state, and a 15-minute logout period. We did not achieve a Dynamic VSImax for either storage platform.
Figures 9 and 10 illustrate our physical networks connectivity with respect to the storage solutions tested: We created a 10Gbps LAN with two stacked Dell Power Connect™ 8024F switches and a 10Gbps SAN with two stacked Force10™ S4810 switches. We installed a Dell PowerEdge M1000e chassis fully populated with Dell PowerEdge M420 blade servers. We configured six Force10 MXL switches to create three fabrics for the chassis, fabrics A, B, and C. We connected Fabric A to our data network and fabrics B and C to our SAN. Each of the Power Edge M420 server LOM NICs are on Fabric A, and each of the Mezzanine NICs are on Fabric B or C. We attached all storage including the EqualLogic PS6110XS array and the industry-leading SAN storage solution to our storage network.
Software Defined Storage Accelerates Storage Cost ReductionDataCore Software
IDC, a major global market intelligence firm, assesses DataCore in the Software-Defined Storage (SDS) space. DataCore is one of the leading providers of hardware independent storage virtualization software. Its customers are actively leveraging the benefits of software-defined storage in IT environments ranging from large datacenters to more modest computer rooms, thereby getting better use from pre-existing storage equipment.
This IDC Technology Spotlight discusses the emerging storage architecture of software-defined storage and how DataCore enables its customers to take advantage of it today.
Comparing performance and cost: Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs. legacy hardware solutionPrincipled Technologies
Keeping a legacy, disparate hardware solution instead of choosing the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX may cost you more than you realize. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX increased application performance over a legacy, disparate hardware solution across email, database, and file/print server simultaneous workloads while reducing power consumption by 19.8 percent. The VRTX did so in 70.6 percent less rack-equivalent space than the legacy, disparate hardware solution and with one-third as many cables, to reduce complexity and reduce the burden of space in small offices. Finally, despite a larger initial investment, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX could actually lower your total cost of ownership over years as much as 26.0 percent, delivering a solid return on your investment in less than three years.
As our test results show, investing in the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution could provide you with a compact solution to optimize application performance, reduce complexity, and even lower the total cost of your solution over its lifetime.
DELL EMC XTREMIO X2 CSI PLUGIN INTEGRATION WITH PIVOTAL PKS A Detailed ReviewItzik Reich
This document evaluates integrating Dell EMC XtremIO X2 storage with Pivotal PKS to provide persistent storage for containerized applications. It discusses how XtremIO X2 provides high performance and scalability for database and stateful workloads on PKS. The document then provides steps to install and configure the XtremIO CSI plugin to enable dynamic provisioning of storage volumes in PKS managed Kubernetes clusters. It also demonstrates deploying a PostgreSQL database as an example use case.
Comparing performance and cost: Dell PowerEdge VRTX with one Dell PowerEdge M...Principled Technologies
Keeping a legacy disparate hardware solution composed of nine older servers instead of choosing the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3 family may cost more than one would expect. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with an Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge M830 server could do the work of nine legacy servers running email, database, and file/print server workloads. The VRTX ran all nine workloads in VMs, achieving a slight performance boost on the database and file/print workloads while using much less datacenter space and reducing power consumption by 38.4 percent.
The VRTX achieved these savings using 88.6 percent less rack-equivalent space than the legacy disparate hardware solution and with one-third as many cables, to reduce complexity and reduce the burden of space in small offices.
Despite a larger initial investment, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with an Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge M830 server could actually lower the total cost of ownership over five years by as much as 48.5 percent, delivering a solid return on investment in less than two years.
As our test results show, investing in the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 v3 family could provide a compact solution to optimize application performance and reduce complexity at a lower lifetime cost than a legacy solution composed of nine older servers.
Storage Considerations for VDI - Scalar presentation at Toronto VMUG 2014Scalar Decisions
A look at some of the storage challenges that come with VDI, and some of the newer storage vendors in the marketplace that help address these challenges
Enterprise data-centers are straining to keep pace with dynamic business demands, as well as to incorporate advanced technologies and architectures that aim to improve infrastructure performance
Setting up a failover cluster on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a straightforward process. In very little time, you can deploy Dell PowerEdge VRTX with up to four M-series servers, switches, and storage in a redundant configuration using Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. By setting up a failover cluster on your compact Dell PowerEdge VRTX, you can maximize server uptime to keep your business moving.
This document describes testing of Hitachi Data Instance Director (HDID) to protect a Hitachi Unified Compute Platform HC V240 hyperconverged infrastructure running VMware vSphere. HDID provided agentless backups of VMs using VMware VADP and allowed cloning backups. Testing showed HDID can reduce backup windows and easily replicate backups within or outside the HC V240 chassis.
Benchmarking a Scalable and Highly Available Architecture for Virtual DesktopsDataCore Software
This paper reports on a configuration for Virtual Desktops (VDs) which reduces the total hardware cost to approximately $32.41 per desktop, including the storage infrastructure. This number is achieved using a configuration with dual node, cross-mirrored, High Availability storage. In comparison to previously published reports, which tout the storage infrastructure costs alone of VDI at from fifty to several hundred dollars per virtual machine, the significance of the data becomes self evident. In this report, storage hardware costs become inconsequential.
Offer faster access to critical data and achieve greater inline data reductio...Principled Technologies
Compared to a solution from another vendor (“Vendor B”), the PowerStore 7000T delivered a better inline data reduction ratio and better performance during simulated OLTP and other I/O workloads
VDI performance comparison: Dell PowerEdge FX2 and FC430 servers with VMware ...Principled Technologies
Replacing your legacy VDI servers with a new Intel Xeon processor E5-2650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge FX2 solution using VMware Virtual SAN can be a great boon for your enterprise.
In the Principled Technologies (PT) labs, this space-efficient, affordable solution outperformed a legacy server and traditional SAN VSAN by offering 72 percent greater VDI users. Additionally, it achieved greater performance while using 91 percent less space and at a cost of only $176.52 per user.
By supporting more users, saving space, and its affordability, an upgrade to the Intel-powered Dell PowerEdge FX2 solution using VMware Virtual SAN can be a wise move when replacing your aging, older infrastructure.
Meet database performance needs while reducing TCO with the Dell PowerEdge VR...Principled Technologies
Cloud WAN services can seem convenient for small businesses and remote offices, but they remove local control and can be more expensive over time. In our tests, the all-in-one Dell PowerEdge VRTX provided the necessary transactional database performance while saving up to 63.9 percent in costs over five years. When you’re looking for a reliable solution to run workloads in remote offices, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX has the potential to cost less than running databases from the cloud.
Dynamic Hyper-Converged Future Proof Your Data CenterDataCore Software
IT organizations are continuously striving to reduce the amount of time and effort to deploy new resources for the business. Data center and remote office infrastructures are often complex and rigid to deploy, causing operational delays. As a result, many IT organizations are looking at a hyper-converged infrastructure.
Read this whitepaper to discover that a hyper-converged approach is flexible and easy to deploy and offers:
• Lower CAPEX because of lower up-front prices for infrastructure
• Lower OPEX through reductions in operational expenses and personnel
• Faster time-to-value for new business needs
This document discusses a high-performance computing solution from ttec that combines GPU computing using NVIDIA Tesla and GRID cards with Nimble storage virtualization. The solution allows centralized storage and collaboration for engineering teams working on complex projects across remote locations. It provides improved security, performance, and total cost of ownership compared to other solutions through the integration of GPU workstations, NVIDIA virtualization technologies, Citrix and VMware virtualization, and high-performance Nimble storage. The solution was implemented for an automotive manufacturer to create a centralized VDI environment for development workloads with stringent CPU, RAM, IOPS and latency requirements.
Foursquare es una red social basada en la geolocalización que permite a los usuarios indicar su ubicación física al hacer un "check-in" y compartir recomendaciones sobre lugares. Los usuarios ganan puntos y medallas por descubrir nuevos lugares y pueden ver quién ha hecho más check-ins en un determinado sitio. Foursquare fue fundada en 2009 y ha evolucionado para ofrecer recomendaciones inteligentes de lugares basadas en los intereses y actividades de los usuarios.
Este documento presenta herramientas y buenas prácticas para que las organizaciones no lucrativas utilicen las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación de forma efectiva. Explica diversas herramientas digitales como páginas web, blogs, redes sociales y software libre, e incluye consejos sobre cómo implementarlas y gestionarlas. También cubre temas como la credibilidad de la información en internet, la difusión, las normas de conducta en la red y los derechos de autor. El objetivo es mostrar cómo las ONG pueden
Oriflame ofrece varios beneficios para clientes VIP, incluyendo descuentos de hasta el 30% en productos, gastos de envío gratis para pedidos mayores a 90€, y la acumulación de bonos VIP canjeables en pedidos futuros. Nuevos clientes VIP pueden crear un lote personalizado de 5 productos valorados en 50€ por solo 15€, y recibir regalos adicionales si sus pedidos superan los 90€. Los clientes también ganan bonos de 5€ por cada nuevo cliente VIP que inviten y realicen ped
M. Cediel. La seguridad en el Cloud para PYMEs. EIIA14COIICV
Presentación de Mariano Cediel, de Diagram Software, en la mesa "Tendencias informáticas que están transformando el funcionamiento de las empresa". 2º Encuentro de Informática Industrial de Alicante (#EIIA14). 4 de diciembre de 2014
El documento habla sobre siete cetáceos y dos tortugas que fueron encontrados varados a lo largo de la costa de Fuerteventura y Lanzarote durante los últimos meses, coincidiendo con las prospecciones petroleras realizadas por Repsol. Aunque todavía no están los resultados de las necropsias, los hechos indican un aumento significativo en las muertes de delfines durante el período de sondeo en comparación con años anteriores. Expertos advierten que la contaminación acústica de las prospecciones puede afectar los sistemas
Tic's 1b rrhh paulina yacelga katherine chato christian alvarado recursoshumanos1b
El documento describe las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC), incluyendo las telecomunicaciones, la informática, las consolas de juego, los nuevos servicios TIC como blogs, y los servicios TIC. Cubre temas como satélites, telefonía móvil, hardware, software, juegos de consola, banda ancha, comunidades virtuales, y más.
Este documento compara tres plataformas digitales para compartir documentos: SlideShare, Scribd y Calaméo. Brevemente:
1) SlideShare permite subir archivos manteniendo su formato original y convertirlos a formato flash para verlos en cualquier navegador. La plataforma está en inglés.
2) Scribd ofrece una variedad de formatos de archivo y contiene herramientas contra el plagio.
3) Calaméo está diseñado para uso desde temprana edad y tiene una navegación sencilla.
Webminar Gratuito "Nuevas Características de DEFT 7 Computer Forensics Live DVD"NPROS Perú
Este documento presenta un webminar sobre las nuevas características de DEFT 7, un sistema operativo live DVD para análisis forense de computadoras. Algunas de las nuevas características incluyen soporte para más modelos de laptops, capacidad de instalación, herramientas para análisis forense de teléfonos móviles e inteligencia cibernética, y mejoras en el kernel Linux. El webminar también proporciona información sobre NPROS Perú, la organización que ofrece el curso, y sobre DEFT y D
Presentacion bni viajes trobajo en leonSinergia León
Agencia de viajes en León que ofrece diseño de viajes a medida y asesoramiento personalizado.
Especializados en Europa y Caribe.
Reservas de restaurantes para novios
The document discusses soil classification systems, including the key diagnostic horizons and orders in the Soil Taxonomy system. It defines diagnostic horizons based on quantitative morphological/genetic criteria and notes they are different between taxonomic systems and do not have a one-to-one relationship with genetic horizons. Examples of diagnostic epipedion and endopedion horizons are provided, along with an overview of the major soil orders in Soil Taxonomy including examples.
Acuerdo del Concejo Municipal de Concepción Antioquia. Por medio del cual se crea el comité de discapacidad del municipio de concepción y se deroga en su totalidad el acuerdo No. 15 del 30 de noviembre de 2011.
Património Cultural Português - Pousadas de Portugal - Elvas- Artur Filipe do...Artur Filipe dos Santos
As pousadas de Portugal foram uma ideia partida de António Ferro com o objetivo de incrementar a industria do turismo fora dos grandes centros populacionais, ao mesmo tempo em que se exultavam o património cultural da gastronomia local.
Atualmente existem 36 unidades hoteleiras espalhadas por Portugal continental e ilhas e ainda uma pousada no estrangeiro, em Salvador da Baía, no Brasil.
A primeira pousada de Portugal foi inaugurada em Elvas, no ano de 1942. Atualmente é apenas conhecida como Pousada Santa Lúzia por já não fazer parte da lista das Pousadas de Portugal.
Artur Filipe dos Santos
artur.filipe@uvigo.es
www.arturfilipesantos.wix.com/arturfilipesantos
www.politicsandflags.wordpress.com
www.omeucaminhodesantiago.wordpress.com
Artur Filipe dos Santos, Doutorado em Comunicação, Publicidade Relações Públicas e Protocolo, pela Universidade de Vigo, Galiza, Espanha, Professor Universitário, consultor e investigador em Comunicação Institucional e Património, Protocolista e vexilologista.
Director Académico e Professor Titular na Universidade Sénior Contemporânea, membro da Direção do OIDECOM-Observatório Iberoamericano de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Comunicação, membro da APEP-Associacao Portuguesa de Estudos de Protocolo.Professor convidado e membro do Grupo de Investigação em Comunicação (ICOM-X1) da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e da Comunicação da Universidade de Vigo, membro do Grupo de Investigação em Turismo e Comunicação da Universidade de Westminster. Professor convidado das Escola Superior de Saúde do Insttuto Piaget (Portugal).Orador e palestrante convidado em várias instituições de ensino superior. Formador em Networking e Sales Communication no Network Group +Negócio Portugal.
Investigador do Património Cultural e Religioso dos Caminhos de Santiago, aborda esta temática em várias instituições de ensino e em várias organizações culturais.
www.arturfilipesantos.wix.com/arturfilipesantos
https://www.facebook.com/arturfilipe.santos
https://twitter.com/arturfilipesant
https://politicsandflags.wordpress.com
https://omeucaminhodesantiago.wordpress.com
http://comunicacionpatrimoniomundial.blogia.com
https://pt.linkedin.com/pub/artur-filipe-dos-santos/1a/aa9/b09
http://pt.slideshare.net/arturfilipesantos
http://www.doyoubuzz.com/artur-filipe-dos-santos
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5635-0531
http://uvigo.academia.edu/ArturFilipedosSantos
Psychische Erkrankungen verursachen in Österreich derzeit einen volkswirtschaftlichenSchaden von jährlich sieben Milliarden Euro und dies mit stark steigender Tendenz. Laut einer neuen Studie des IWS sind psychische Belastungen schon jetzt die zweithäufigste Ursache für Frühpensionierungen.
Seit Jahren gibt es trotz des Wissens um diese Entwicklung kaum Reaktionen und vor allem, wenn etwas passiert, dann ist es nur ein Reagieren und kein Agieren im Sinne einer Prävention. Durch diese Untätigkeit entstehen nicht nur immense Kosten für das Gesamtsystem, sondern es passiert ja ebenso eine Schädigung durch die Einbrüche in den Lebensverläufen der Menschen, ein „In-Kauf-Nehmen“ der Minderung von Chancen der sozialen Teilhabe durch die Verantwortlichen.
Hier stellt sich nun die zentrale Frage:
„Warum ist Prävention kein Handlungsschema in Österreich?“
Im Rahmen der Jahrestagung der NeuZeit KG soll dies unter dem Tagungsthema „Prävention – eine gesellschaftspolitische Verantwortung“ beleuchtet werden. Politiker, Ärzte, Vertreter der Sozialpartner und Institutionen sowie Arbeitspsychologen sind die Referenten und Diskussionspartner.
Global Resort Management will develop an online snow sports TV channel called World Snow Sports TV. The channel will provide global snow sports news, instruction, resort information, videos, live events, and advertising. It will launch first in the US by October 2014 and expand to Canada by September 2015 and Europe by September 2016. The project aims to increase sales and reach customers through modern technologies like mobile and social media. Key deliverables include developing the website, mobile apps, and advertising platforms while keeping partners engaged through the project's completion.
El documento describe los principales elementos HTML para crear formularios, incluyendo <form> para englobar el formulario, <input> para diferentes tipos de campos como texto, contraseña, botones, <textarea> para comentarios, <select> para menús desplegables, <label> para etiquetas de campos, y <fieldset> para agrupar secciones relacionadas.
El documento describe 11 protocolos para diferentes tipos de piel. Cada protocolo incluye pasos como masaje de bienvenida, desmaquillado, tónico, análisis de piel, exfoliación, vapor, extracción, mascarilla y bloqueador solar. Los protocolos varían los tipos de mascarilla y tratamientos dependiendo del tipo de piel, como piel grasa, sensible, mixta o envejecida.
BlueButton and MyHealth at Connected Health 2015 in San DiegoMark Scrimshire
A presentation about MHealth, My Health and BlueButton and BlueButton on FHIR developments at CMS.
Presentation given on June 18th at Connected Health 2015 in San Diego.
El documento habla sobre los sistemas de información de negocios y cómo apoyan diferentes funciones de negocio como mercadotecnia, manufactura, recursos humanos y finanzas. Describe varios sistemas de información específicos como los de planificación de recursos empresariales, ejecución de manufactura, control de procesos y nómina. También discute cómo las tecnologías como las intranets permiten procesar aplicaciones comunes de recursos humanos.
Citrix XenDesktop Reference Architecture for 750 usersX-IO Technologies
A reference architecture that delivers a low-cost, high performance storage solution that with no-risk consistency and simple management for the virtualization administrator.
This document summarizes a proposal for implementing a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) at ABC Inc. It includes an executive summary highlighting benefits of VDI like simplified provisioning and centralized management. It then provides an overview of the current desktop challenges, typical corporate desktop models, and advantages of VDI. The objective is to evaluate the financial and operational impacts of VDI solutions. The analysis compares the 5-year total cost of ownership for the current (BAU) environment versus a VDI solution. It finds that while the VDI solution has higher initial capital costs, it provides overall savings of $66,000 over 5 years through reduced operating expenses.
VDI-in-a-Box is a simple virtual desktop solution that reduces costs through integrated connection brokering, provisioning, load balancing and profile management. It provides virtual desktops to any user on any device for less than new PCs. The solution simplifies deployment and management of virtual desktops and scales easily by adding more standard servers. It ensures high availability without complex shared storage or load balancing components.
The document discusses how client consolidation (virtualization) can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership for PCs. It states that hardware and software costs make up less than 30% of total PC costs, while other non-hardware operation and support costs dominate. Client consolidation through virtualization can lower these total costs by reducing operational and end-user support expenses. Sample pricing information is provided for a virtual desktop infrastructure solution.
The IBM BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud white paper provides an overview of the platform and its advantages for enterprises. It discusses how the solution combines servers, storage, networking, and software into an optimized unified architecture. The paper highlights how the platform delivers outstanding performance through its converged networking and scalable architecture. It also emphasizes how the solution provides reliability through redundancy and quality support from IBM.
Hosted Desktop and Evolution of Hardware Server Technologies-2015 EditionAhmed Sallam
This document discusses the evolution of hardware-assisted server technologies and their benefits for hosted desktops and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). It covers technologies like fabric-based infrastructure, in-memory computing, persistent memory, and server virtual IO. These technologies improve security, flexibility, agility and resilience while reducing costs and downtime for VDI deployments. The document provides an overview of key evolving server technologies and how they are shaping the future of desktop virtualization.
Hosted desktop and evolution of hardware server technologies - 2015 editionAhmed Sallam
Three key server hardware technologies are shaping the future of Desktop Virtualization:
1. Hardware-Assisted System Virtualization.
2. Hardware-Assisted System Security
3. Hardware Servers Physicalization.
This paper covers the three of them.
World-wide Co. is implementing a XenDesktop 7 solution hosted on Microsoft Azure to provide secure access to desktops and applications for their accounting department. The solution will avoid the need to build new infrastructure and leverage monthly subscription funding instead of capital expenses. Based on Project Accelerator guidance and testing, the solution will include XenDesktop controllers, shared workers, and VDI workers hosted on Azure, along with Active Directory, DNS/DHCP, and SQL Server. NetScaler Gateway and StoreFront will provide secure remote access over an encrypted Site-to-Site VPN between Azure and World-wide Co.'s network. This implementation is designed to meet World-wide Co.'s objectives of quick deployment, high availability, and support
If your business is considering using a hyperconverged
computer/storage solution rather than disparate dedicated appliances, a Nutanix storage cluster powered by Dell XC630 appliances could bring many benefits. Thanks to its powerful Dell servers with Intel processors, this space-efficient solution was able to handle nine SQL Server 2014 OLTP workloads at over 420,000 OPM, 160 mailboxes in Microsoft Exchange 2013, and file/print and web server disk workloads; that’s enough to meet your present demands and still have room for future growth. With software-defined tiered storage, high availability, and a redundant network architecture, the hyperconverged solution based on Dell XC630 appliances can help your business get the job done.
This document provides information about sponsor sessions at a NetApp conference in Berlin, including sessions hosted by Cisco, VMware, Brocade, and other sponsors. It summarizes the topics to be covered in each sponsor session, such as FlexPod solutions with Cisco UCS and ACI networking, deploying virtual desktops with Citrix and NetApp storage, and best practices for performance analysis and storage optimization.
Hitachi Unified Compute Platform Family OverviewHitachi Vantara
Hitachi offers Unified Compute Platform (UCP) solutions that integrate compute, storage, and networking resources to enable faster deployment of cloud infrastructure and more efficient IT operations. UCP solutions combine Hitachi blade servers and storage with networking from Brocade or Cisco. They provide automated management of resources and can support various applications and workloads, including virtualization, private clouds, databases, and data warehousing. UCP solutions aim to reduce costs, complexity, and risk for organizations compared to component-based infrastructure approaches.
The white paper compares the user experience of three server management platforms: Dell Management Console, HP Systems Insight Manager, and IBM Systems Director. User experience testing was conducted across 14 administrators performing common management tasks on each platform. Testers rated IBM Systems Director as providing a user experience around 4% better than HP Systems Insight Manager and around 13% better than Dell Management Console based on the graphic user interface, processes, and overall experience. The paper concludes that IBM Systems Director provided administrators with a superior management experience and a reason to select IBM servers when other criteria were equivalent.
Scaling xen desktop and xenapp with solid state drives in healthcareIntel® Software
Kaiser Permanente implemented solid-state drives to address storage bottlenecks in their virtualized Citrix XenApp environment hosting critical healthcare applications. SSDs enabled Kaiser to scale their XenApp deployment, supporting over 100,000 concurrent users on virtual desktops and applications while lowering costs. Kaiser's analysis showed SSDs allowed hosting up to 6 virtual machines per server compared to 2 with HDDs, reducing their cost per user by up to 30%. SSD performance freed access to data and kept up with the increasing demands of their virtualized environment.
Deploying Unified Communications with Lync on the easiest, most secure platformDell World
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) offers a simple and secure way to deploy unified communications with Lync. In this session you will learn about the new Dell appliance, operating system and thin clients that set a new standard for easy implementation of Citrix XenDesktop with ultra-secure connectivity to Microsoft Lync. Experience live displays of these innovative technologies and discover how customers have realized the benefits of unified communications more easily and securely with Dell.
VDI with Dell EqualLogic hybrid arrays: A comparative study with the industry...Principled Technologies
Building a VDI environment requires a solid storage system capable of meeting the demands of a large number of users. Being able to support all your users with an attractively priced storage solution is ideal.
We found the Dell EqualLogic PS6110XS to be simple to set up and manage during the course of testing, and it provided significantly higher usable capacity, at 9.1 TB versus 6.7 TB for the competing similarly configured, industry-leading NAS solution.
The Dell EqualLogic PS6110XS also was more power efficient, requiring 68.6 percent less power, while providing comparable performance to the industry-leading competitor. In addition, the solution also saved roughly 51.6 percent on the initial investment in hardware, software, and support, at a cost of $102 per desktop versus $210 for the competitor. The ease of setup and management, performance capabilities, and potential savings with the Dell EqualLogic PS6110XS show that it has the potential to power your VDI environment while helping your bottom line.
IBM SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure (SDI) is IBM’s answer to end-user virtualization and integration needs. It offers robust virtual desktop solutions, infrastructure, and services designed to make the deployment of virtual desktops easier as is based on a reference architecture approach. As such, IBM SDI supports a wide range of hardware, hypervisors and software platforms from multiple vendors, providing a high degree of flexibility and customization choices. IBM SDI helps offer a more cost-effective, manageable, virtual desktop environment for a wide range of customer sizes, user types and industry segments. For more information on IBM Systems, visit http://ibm.co/RKEeMO.
Visit http://on.fb.me/LT4gdu to 'Like' the official Facebook page of IBM India Smarter Computing.
This document provides an overview of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and how it addresses challenges with traditional desktop management approaches. It discusses:
1) The history of desktop management models from centralized mainframes to distributed PCs and challenges with current server-based computing using Terminal Services.
2) How VDI leverages virtualization to provide each user their own isolated virtual machine, combining benefits of server-based computing like manageability with benefits of distributed computing like performance and stability.
3) Key components of a VDI architecture including client access, security, image management, and application streaming to provide a complete desktop solution.
Fusion-io Virtualization Reference Architecture: Deploying Server and Desktop...Principled Technologies
In our testing, Fusion ioControl, Cisco UCS, and VMware technologies created a high-performance, easy-to-configure and manage solution that could handle a demanding mixed application environment consisting of common virtualized business applications and VDI. By prioritizing performance resources with ioControl QoS service levels and policies, we demonstrated that mission-critical and business-critical applications will run at optimum performance levels in a 600 virtual desktop boot storm, or an OLTP heavy-workload use case. By adding Fusion ioTurbine software and Cisco Fusion ioDrive2 into the UCS Blade Server, we further extended OLTP performance with no additional solution footprint. With the Fusion ioControl UI and ioSphere UI integration with vCenter Server, you can manage all aspects of storage, both ioControl and UCS-side Fusion ioDrive flash, from within vCenter console. Fusion ioControl Hybrid Storage and Cisco UCS is a strong solution to meet today’s demanding mixed workloads in your VMware virtualized data center.
Dhiraj Dhall is an experienced cloud infrastructure consultant with over 11 years of experience in strategic consulting focused on next generation data centers, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Desktop as a Service (Daas). He provides expert consultation in cloud strategy, technical assessments, solution design, migration, and delivery of infrastructure and platform services. Dhiraj has extensive experience designing and implementing cloud solutions using technologies such as VMware, Cisco UCS, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Red Hat OpenStack.
MT23 Benefits of Modular Computing from Data Center to Branch OfficeDell EMC World
IT modernization, simplified management and cost reduction initiatives have propelled an industry shift to modular computing models from "one size fits all" approaches. In this session, we discuss how you can leverage innovative Modular Infrastructure solutions from Dell EMC to transform your environment- gaining greater control and efficiency while accelerating IT services- no matter the size and location of operations.
Similar to X-Pod for Citrix VDI on UCS with ISE 700 Hybrid Storage Array (20)
Why You Should Replace Windows 11 with Nitrux Linux 3.5.0 for enhanced perfor...SOFTTECHHUB
The choice of an operating system plays a pivotal role in shaping our computing experience. For decades, Microsoft's Windows has dominated the market, offering a familiar and widely adopted platform for personal and professional use. However, as technological advancements continue to push the boundaries of innovation, alternative operating systems have emerged, challenging the status quo and offering users a fresh perspective on computing.
One such alternative that has garnered significant attention and acclaim is Nitrux Linux 3.5.0, a sleek, powerful, and user-friendly Linux distribution that promises to redefine the way we interact with our devices. With its focus on performance, security, and customization, Nitrux Linux presents a compelling case for those seeking to break free from the constraints of proprietary software and embrace the freedom and flexibility of open-source computing.
Cosa hanno in comune un mattoncino Lego e la backdoor XZ?Speck&Tech
ABSTRACT: A prima vista, un mattoncino Lego e la backdoor XZ potrebbero avere in comune il fatto di essere entrambi blocchi di costruzione, o dipendenze di progetti creativi e software. La realtà è che un mattoncino Lego e il caso della backdoor XZ hanno molto di più di tutto ciò in comune.
Partecipate alla presentazione per immergervi in una storia di interoperabilità, standard e formati aperti, per poi discutere del ruolo importante che i contributori hanno in una comunità open source sostenibile.
BIO: Sostenitrice del software libero e dei formati standard e aperti. È stata un membro attivo dei progetti Fedora e openSUSE e ha co-fondato l'Associazione LibreItalia dove è stata coinvolta in diversi eventi, migrazioni e formazione relativi a LibreOffice. In precedenza ha lavorato a migrazioni e corsi di formazione su LibreOffice per diverse amministrazioni pubbliche e privati. Da gennaio 2020 lavora in SUSE come Software Release Engineer per Uyuni e SUSE Manager e quando non segue la sua passione per i computer e per Geeko coltiva la sua curiosità per l'astronomia (da cui deriva il suo nickname deneb_alpha).
Infrastructure Challenges in Scaling RAG with Custom AI modelsZilliz
Building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems with open-source and custom AI models is a complex task. This talk explores the challenges in productionizing RAG systems, including retrieval performance, response synthesis, and evaluation. We’ll discuss how to leverage open-source models like text embeddings, language models, and custom fine-tuned models to enhance RAG performance. Additionally, we’ll cover how BentoML can help orchestrate and scale these AI components efficiently, ensuring seamless deployment and management of RAG systems in the cloud.
GraphSummit Singapore | The Future of Agility: Supercharging Digital Transfor...Neo4j
Leonard Jayamohan, Partner & Generative AI Lead, Deloitte
This keynote will reveal how Deloitte leverages Neo4j’s graph power for groundbreaking digital twin solutions, achieving a staggering 100x performance boost. Discover the essential role knowledge graphs play in successful generative AI implementations. Plus, get an exclusive look at an innovative Neo4j + Generative AI solution Deloitte is developing in-house.
Maruthi Prithivirajan, Head of ASEAN & IN Solution Architecture, Neo4j
Get an inside look at the latest Neo4j innovations that enable relationship-driven intelligence at scale. Learn more about the newest cloud integrations and product enhancements that make Neo4j an essential choice for developers building apps with interconnected data and generative AI.
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
Full-RAG: A modern architecture for hyper-personalizationZilliz
Mike Del Balso, CEO & Co-Founder at Tecton, presents "Full RAG," a novel approach to AI recommendation systems, aiming to push beyond the limitations of traditional models through a deep integration of contextual insights and real-time data, leveraging the Retrieval-Augmented Generation architecture. This talk will outline Full RAG's potential to significantly enhance personalization, address engineering challenges such as data management and model training, and introduce data enrichment with reranking as a key solution. Attendees will gain crucial insights into the importance of hyperpersonalization in AI, the capabilities of Full RAG for advanced personalization, and strategies for managing complex data integrations for deploying cutting-edge AI solutions.
Unlocking Productivity: Leveraging the Potential of Copilot in Microsoft 365, a presentation by Christoforos Vlachos, Senior Solutions Manager – Modern Workplace, Uni Systems
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 6DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 6. In this session, we will cover Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI.
UiPath Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI webinar offers an in-depth exploration of leveraging cutting-edge technologies for test automation within the UiPath platform. Attendees will delve into the integration of generative AI, a test automation solution, with Open AI advanced natural language processing capabilities.
Throughout the session, participants will discover how this synergy empowers testers to automate repetitive tasks, enhance testing accuracy, and expedite the software testing life cycle. Topics covered include the seamless integration process, practical use cases, and the benefits of harnessing AI-driven automation for UiPath testing initiatives. By attending this webinar, testers, and automation professionals can gain valuable insights into harnessing the power of AI to optimize their test automation workflows within the UiPath ecosystem, ultimately driving efficiency and quality in software development processes.
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into integrating generative AI.
2. Understanding how this integration enhances test automation within the UiPath platform
3. Practical demonstrations
4. Exploration of real-world use cases illustrating the benefits of AI-driven test automation for UiPath
Topics covered:
What is generative AI
Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI.
UiPath integration with generative AI
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
In his public lecture, Christian Timmerer provides insights into the fascinating history of video streaming, starting from its humble beginnings before YouTube to the groundbreaking technologies that now dominate platforms like Netflix and ORF ON. Timmerer also presents provocative contributions of his own that have significantly influenced the industry. He concludes by looking at future challenges and invites the audience to join in a discussion.
Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
GraphRAG for Life Science to increase LLM accuracyTomaz Bratanic
GraphRAG for life science domain, where you retriever information from biomedical knowledge graphs using LLMs to increase the accuracy and performance of generated answers
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
Essentials of Automations: The Art of Triggers and Actions in FMESafe Software
In this second installment of our Essentials of Automations webinar series, we’ll explore the landscape of triggers and actions, guiding you through the nuances of authoring and adapting workspaces for seamless automations. Gain an understanding of the full spectrum of triggers and actions available in FME, empowering you to enhance your workspaces for efficient automation.
We’ll kick things off by showcasing the most commonly used event-based triggers, introducing you to various automation workflows like manual triggers, schedules, directory watchers, and more. Plus, see how these elements play out in real scenarios.
Whether you’re tweaking your current setup or building from the ground up, this session will arm you with the tools and insights needed to transform your FME usage into a powerhouse of productivity. Join us to discover effective strategies that simplify complex processes, enhancing your productivity and transforming your data management practices with FME. Let’s turn complexity into clarity and make your workspaces work wonders!
GraphSummit Singapore | The Art of the Possible with Graph - Q2 2024Neo4j
Neha Bajwa, Vice President of Product Marketing, Neo4j
Join us as we explore breakthrough innovations enabled by interconnected data and AI. Discover firsthand how organizations use relationships in data to uncover contextual insights and solve our most pressing challenges – from optimizing supply chains, detecting fraud, and improving customer experiences to accelerating drug discoveries.
Programming Foundation Models with DSPy - Meetup SlidesZilliz
Prompting language models is hard, while programming language models is easy. In this talk, I will discuss the state-of-the-art framework DSPy for programming foundation models with its powerful optimizers and runtime constraint system.
Programming Foundation Models with DSPy - Meetup Slides
X-Pod for Citrix VDI on UCS with ISE 700 Hybrid Storage Array
1. Validated Reference Architecture
January 2015
X-Pod for VDI
Providing a simple yet best-of-breed converged
infrastructure for virtualized desktop solutions
Enabled by:
X-IO ISE 740 Hybrid Storage Array
Citrix XenDesktop 7.5
VMware ESX 5.5
Cisco UCS
2. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 2
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3
Key Takeaway...........................................................................................................................................3
Executive Overview....................................................................................................... 3
Why VDI? ..................................................................................................................................................4
VDI—Business Benefits................................................................................................ 5
Flexible Desktop Environment ..................................................................................................................5
Better, Easier Desktop Management ........................................................................................................5
Desktop by Template ................................................................................................................................6
Security and Compliance ..........................................................................................................................6
BYOD Support ..........................................................................................................................................6
Virtual Desktop Implementation Risks........................................................................ 7
Performance and Capacity: Not a Trade-Off ............................................................................................7
Reliability and Redundancy.......................................................................................................................7
Redefining “Steady-State” Operations ......................................................................................................8
VDI Planning Questions to Ask.................................................................................... 8
Solution Overview......................................................................................................... 9
Components..............................................................................................................................................9
Citrix XenDesktop ...................................................................................................................................10
Solution Architecture.................................................................................................. 13
Hardware Components ...........................................................................................................................14
Software Components.............................................................................................................................15
Cisco Unified Compute System (UCS) ...................................................................................................15
VMware vSphere 5..................................................................................................................................16
XenDesktop Environment Architecture ...................................................................................................17
Datastores...............................................................................................................................................18
Performance Analysis of Tested configurations...................................................... 21
Test Methodology....................................................................................................................................21
Workload Analysis...................................................................................................................................21
Virtual Desktop Deployment Operations.................................................................................................27
Virtual Desktop Boot Storm.....................................................................................................................29
Conclusion................................................................................................................... 32
Contact X-IO technologies ......................................................................................................................32
Appendix...................................................................................................................... 33
Appendix A: IOPS Comparison..............................................................................................................33
3. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 3
Introduction
This white paper provides a primer for the X-Pod for VDI converged infrastructure solution, powered by
X-IO storage. X-Pod is a reference architecture designed to deliver a repeatable, high-performance virtual
desktop infrastructure. It utilizes an industry-leading XenDesktop 7.5 environment, hosted on Cisco
Unified Computing System (UCS) Blade Servers, with storage housed on a single high-performance X-IO
ISE 740 Hybrid Storage Array.
The environment described herein has been extensively tested by X-IO. This document is intended to
provide insight into the components, the architecture, and the performance required to meet the demands
of a 450- and 500-seat virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployment.
Key Takeaway
This paper details the extensive testing that X-IO has performed and
provides guidance to the performance requirements of various operations
based on the X-Pod core components of Cisco UCS server and networking
hardware together with the X-IO Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) systems.
This validated testing demonstrates that this solution is capable of
delivering a high-performance desktop experience at up to 95%
concurrency.
This paper is designed to act as both a primer for XenDesktop deployments
and as a technical overview of the X-Pod architecture. Those readers who
are comfortable with the business and technical benefits of deploying
XenDesktop and who understand the pitfalls of implementing such an
infrastructure should progress to the Solution Overview section of this
document.
Executive Overview
When discussing VDI architectures with customers and solution providers, X-IO has noticed two
concerns:
Whether the technical statistics and benchmarks provided are “real-world” or marketing-hyped
numbers.
Whether VDI architects should be utilizing hyper-converged systems or using best of breed
components.
When it comes to VDI design, there are many possible pitfalls. This has led to a frightening statistic: for
every successful VDI implementation, 7 to 10 fail, the vast majority of these due to an inappropriate
storage design. X-IO has therefore worked with real-world benchmark tools such as Login VSI to ensure
that any benchmarks carried out are true reflections of user actions rather than synthetic workloads
applied by I/O testing tools. All of the user counts reflected in this document are actually high-utilization
loads and, if anything, are worst-case numbers rather than optimistic based upon assumptions or
unrealistic scenarios (e.g., zero user data or ridiculously high data de-duplication forecasts).
4. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 4
Regarding the argument for hyper-converged systems, the systems out there today undoubtedly have
their place; however, they need to be precisely architected for today’s workload and are relatively
inflexible for future growth or change of use. This has often led to a difficult decision for architects as to
whether to endure the complexity and risk of using best-of-breed components or to compromise and
deploy a pre-converged, collapsed stack. With the arrival of converged solutions such as X-Pod, best-of-
breed components can be deployed, but using pre-architected and tested blueprints that give the peace
of mind previously found only with hyper-converged systems.
Why VDI?
Virtualization of servers and IT infrastructure has been well established in the business landscape.
Operating expense (OPEX) cost reductions are routine in a virtualized data center due to the reduced
number of physical servers, more centralized management tools, energy savings, and many other factors.
This cost savings makes desktop virtualization a promising opportunity to transform a major cost for IT
organizations. Unfortunately, virtualized desktop workloads are unlike most of the server virtualization
workloads with which organizations have experience. While “steady-state” desktop operations are what is
commonly sized for (for example, 10-20 IOPS/desktop), it is the “non-standard” operations and
misconfigured sizing operations that eventually cause poor user experience and make VDI such a
challenging, and expensive, solution to design and implement.
By leveraging desktop virtualization solutions such as Citrix XenDesktop, IT organizations can provide
their customers with a superior desktop experience while decreasing management cost and increasing
flexibility of the organization. IT organizations can now increase the leverage of their IT staff by
consolidating desktop management and hardware into the enterprise virtualization computing model. For
example, relatively few IT staff can manage hundreds, even thousands, of desktops for patch
management or application upgrades. Using tools such as Machine Creation Services or Provisioning
Server to manage image deployment, gold images can be quickly reverted to a known state if required,
which reduces capacity as only data changes are stored for each snapshot. By contrast, traditional
methods of patch management require excessive involvement from the IT organization across hundreds,
even thousands, of physical machines that could be spread around the world.
In addition to desktop virtualization, Citrix XenApp is available to virtualize applications as well. End users
can be provisioned individual applications that can be delivered to any device, whether that is a laptop,
tablet, or smartphone. As the “bring your own device” (BYOD) phenomenon continues to grow, users
demand more flexible access to the resources they need to perform their jobs. Policies that prohibit
employees from using personal devices, and that the company does not pay for, are becoming more
difficult to defend.
Implementing a virtual desktop solution can be immensely beneficial to the organization, but if
implemented incorrectly, it can be an equally impressive failure. User experience is the “gold standard”
that any solution will be held to, because users will evaluate the new solution based on the physical
desktop that was just replaced. Proof of Concept (POC) testing is essential when evaluating any new
solution, because the process of configuring the test gives essential information about how the system
will perform. Tools such as Login Virtual Session Indexer (Login VSI™) are critical for simulating “like”
production workloads and are a worthwhile investment as part of evaluating different solutions.
Inadequately designed VDI implementations often perform well in the POC phase but are overwhelmed
when placed into production. In a majority of these cases, storage performance is often the cause of poor
user experience, due to it often being undersized for performance, and can be the most expensive single
component of any VDI solution.
5. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 5
VDI—Business Benefits
Properly sized and implemented, a VDI project can provide users with a “whole” desktop experience that
surpasses their physical desktop machine. However, the benefits to the business are similar to server
virtualization but are applied at an order of magnitude greater scale. Enterprise-class computing hardware
can be applied to end-user computing (reliability/availability/performance) and can leverage large-scale
virtualization management techniques (capacity/scale). This can allow for greater leveraging of existing IT
staff, enable higher levels of reliability (including disaster recovery), and reduce overall ongoing costs to
the business.
While VDI can be a tremendous advantage for the business, data storage costs are the single largest
cost component of the solution and the most common cause of poor user experience and failed
implementations. Listed below are some advantages to the business and the role that storage has to play
in each.
Flexible Desktop Environment
Many types of desktop needs are seen across various organizations and industries. Based upon the load
pattern and use case, different kinds of desktop virtualization options are available. In fact, it is likely that
multiple types of implementations exist in a single, larger organization.
For example, the resource requirements for graphic designers, software developers, Microsoft Office
power users, and executives are quite different than the requirements for a call center or kiosk desktop.
The power users will generally have higher CPU and memory requirements and will likely require that the
desktop be persistent. Power users will expect that any changes to their desktop will be preserved and in
the same state they left it when logging off.
In a call center (or kiosk) configuration, users expect to log in to any desktop and have the exact same
experience with nothing preserved on the desktop. If one desktop has an issue, the user simply moves to
another desktop instance and tries again. There is usually a standard suite of software that these virtual
desktops use to support the business functions. This is especially true if, for example, cloud-based
customer resource management (CRM) service or Office365 are being used.
Better, Easier Desktop Management
With physical desktops, the IT organization has to go out and physically touch each desktop in some
cases to remediate a problem. This geographic dispersion, even if within the same office building,
increases the staffing requirements to manage the end-user desktops and increases the time required for
“break/fix” functions. There is also an increased risk of data theft when users store corporate data on
physical desktops that reside anywhere in the organization. Desktop virtualization allows for centralized
management of the most commonly touched component in the desktop solution, the desktop itself.
Backups can also be more effective, since all user data is kept in the datacenter, even though it looks to
the user like an attached physical disk housed on local storage. This eliminates many of the issues seen
with trying to back up hundreds and thousands of remote physical desktop machines. Network
interruptions, issues with individual operating system bugs, failing physical hard drives, and so on are all
mitigated by using a common storage platform. In addition, Citrix Profile Management provides the ability
to store necessary user preference data to a network location for backup, management, and replication.
VMware has for years provided a rich API to enable storage partners to better integrate with the VMware
ecosystem. This enables the virtualization administrator (vAdmin) to quickly and efficiently assign storage
resources where required while the complex provisioning of storage resources up through the different
6. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 6
virtualization and hardware layers is done by software. This greatly leverages the amount of storage the
vAdmin can effectively manage and ensures that best practices are followed for storage configuration,
thereby reducing risk. With the addition of the ISE Manager plug-in for the vCenter console, the vAdmin
has additional insight into the performance and health of the underlying storage without having to view an
additional console.
Desktop by Template
IT organizations can create a library of virtual desktop templates, each of which can be carefully tuned
and configured for the business need. These templates can then be used to provision virtual desktop
machines very, very quickly—in minutes in most cases.
For example, if an organization routinely uses contractors for a few different types of functions, a “gold
image” template can be created for each, which can include the appropriate operating system, security
settings, and all the applications contractors would need to accomplish their tasks. When a new contract
employee is added, the IT staff need only deploy a new virtual desktop based upon the appropriate
template. This can be done literally in minutes, but this can also generate an enormous amount of storage
traffic—or I/Os per second (IOPS)—with a relatively small number of deploy operations.
NOTE: Deploying a desktop is one of the most performance-demanding operations that storage will
encounter in a desktop virtualization solution. Performing these operations during “steady-state”
operations can put an abnormally large strain on the storage infrastructure and can impact the experience
of all other users on the system.
Security and Compliance
VDI allows an IT organization to have much better control over corporate data. As such, it makes the job
of implementing consistent, common security and compliance features easier. Depending upon the
organization’s industry, compliance and security concerns can be important or strictly mandated.
With physical desktops and mobile devices, corporations face the increased risk of data loss and theft of
any device where data is stored “locally.” Desktop virtualization enables employees to work with data
securely on centralized corporate resources. In some cases, users can work from any device in any
location with their data meeting the security requirements of the organization.
Depending on the role of the desktop users, certain data regulations (e.g., financial, legal, and medical)
that require data separation and isolation may apply. This requires separate storage devices that must be
able to support high IOPS and capacity levels that the separated pools require. Modular-based storage
systems are inherently designed to accommodate this data security requirement.
Citrix XenDesktop allows an administrator the ability to flexibly assign security features such as
preventing the saving of data to a local resource or copying and pasting data from the XenDesktop
session to the local resource. Add a Citrix NetScaler to the infrastructure, and the admin can now choose
to allow or prevent these features based on the identity of the source device or network entry point to
allow internal users the ability to save to a local resource but deny that user the option when connecting
from a personal device.
BYOD Support
Increasingly, organizations are supporting (and are being demanded to support) “bring your own device”
(BYOD) functionality. The workforce is changing, and the growing expectation is that applications and
desktop access will be available on whatever device the employee has, from laptop to tablet to
7. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 7
smartphone. This also has an immense benefit to the business, as the employee is providing a
“preferred” end-point device that can be used to be productive.
Citrix StoreFront combined with Citrix Receiver offers a very rich interface that allows users to access
their applications and desktop on any mobile device. Individual applications published in Citrix XenApp
enable the employee to quickly gain access to an application outside of the desktop, allowing for easier
access to applications on the go.
Virtual Desktop Implementation Risks
While the list of benefits that can be realized by VDI implementation, both in reduction of manpower and
operating expenses (OPEX), is impressive, the opportunities for failure are equally concerning. This
section lists several areas that can put a VDI initiative at risk. In all cases, sufficient planning for the final
production load and careful monitoring of operations are required to ensure smooth operations.
Performance and Capacity: Not a Trade-Off
Performance has a direct effect on end-user experience, and poor storage performance sizing is usually
the number one reason. Many VDI solutions are sized only for “steady-state” performance requirements.
Common VDI operations, such as boot storms, login storms, deploy operations, recovery, and other
“maintenance operations,” can require an enormous amount of transactional performance (IOPS) from
storage systems. VDI instances have to respond with little or no discernable impact to the end user when
these maintenance operations are conducted.
Performance is not the only thing to consider when sizing a VDI solution, as there must be enough
capacity to satisfy the requirements for user data, operating systems, application data, and user
personae. While there are several techniques to increase the amount of effective capacity a solution can
provide, there is still an underlying requirement for capacity and performance. Unlike regular “file server”
class capacity, this data has performance requirements that go across all of the data (e.g., there is little
“dead data”). This broad requirement means that while there may be areas of high-performance
concentration (base images or replicas), the rest of the data has a high IOPS/TB requirement as well.
This rest of the data is what the individual VDI instances have to work with, so any slowdown in capacity
will directly affect the end-user experience. Solutions that rely on calculated deduplication and
compression techniques will see degrading performance ratios as the capacity is consumed, as there are
limited amounts of processing power and memory capacity in the storage controllers (i.e., the number of
calculations increases with increasing capacity).
According to VDI support organizations, storage systems account for 80 – 90% of the VDI performance
issues reported. Often this is due to read and write latency in the storage system.
Reliability and Redundancy
No virtualized datacenter is sustainable without reliability and redundancy. In the past, services running in
the data center did not necessarily represent a disaster if there was a service disruption. For example, a
service event to the CRM applications, or email services, would be painful to the organization if they were
sluggish, non-responsive, or unavailable for a period of time. Users could still use their desktops for other
productive functions, such as Microsoft Office applications or researching on the internet.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructures, on the other hand, can represent a true disaster if they become sluggish
or non-responsive. The user is no longer impacted by only one or two applications but by the very
8. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 8
desktop itself. Imagine the majority of the workforce reduced to typing 10 or 20 words per minute or login
times in excess of 30 minutes. Any slowdown in the VDI ecosystem has a very “public” result. Storage
systems incur a tremendous performance penalty when performing disk drive recovery operations, and
these have a dramatically negative impact to the end-user experience. Even if data is separated into
“groups” or “sets,” centralized storage controllers are now responsible for managing recovery operations
in addition to ongoing operations. Storage companies would not generally consider this a “single point of
failure,” but users will.
Redefining “Steady-State” Operations
When sizing a VDI environment, many different operations must be planned for. Accommodating hosted
desktop users during “steady state” with a low-latency experience has to be satisfied during maintenance
operations. Boot storms and login/logout storms of relatively few numbers of users can push a storage
system designed only for “steady state” well past its breaking point. These operations are part of the
normal desktop access activity for users, and as such they should be included in any storage sizing
discussion for “normal” operations.
In testing with Login VSI, storage performance (IOPS) required during the user login phase was four
times the “steady-state” workload. Considerable thought should be given to user behavior patterns and
how many users will be concurrently initiating connections to the desktop environment. Login VSI is
capable of adjusting the rate at which users log in to the environment for the test and is an excellent
method for exploring the performance of the solution during various login activity levels. In the testing
X-IO performed, user login rates of 9/min and 33/min were tested. The single greatest impact to the login
times was the high compute (CPU and RAM) utilization of the UCS blade servers when the majority of the
users had connected to the solution.
VDI Planning Questions to Ask
Proper planning is essential to a successful VDI roll-out. Here is a non-exhaustive set of questions to help
guide your investigation into a VDI pilot program and your full production program.
What are the different kinds of users you will have to support (i.e., kiosks, developers, power users,
tellers, knowledge workers)?
What is the scope of each user type?
How many simultaneous desktops will be required?
What are the expected resource demands for each user (i.e., CPU, memory, disk space, network
traffic)?
What is the planned concurrency for your user pools and will their usage be offset from each other
(i.e., shifts, geographical support)?
What are the relative benefits for virtualizing desktop access for each user type?
What are the relative risks for each user type, if there are access issues?
What existing infrastructure can be used for the VDI implementation?
For each user type, would persistent or non-persistent desktops be more appropriate?
For each user type, would provisioned VMs, full clones, or dedicated virtual machines be more
9. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 9
appropriate?
What existing IT management and monitoring tools do you have in place?
Will your infrastructure support iSCSI? Fibre Channel? Is either preferable to you?
Will the pilot program be based on actual users or will it use validation software like Login VSI?
For the pilot program, what are your success criteria?
How much cost will there be in extending the warranty beyond what was included with the base
support period?
What metrics are important to you? For example:
o Total number of IOPS
o Total throughput
o Recompose wall-clock duration
o Maximum latency as seen by end user
o Virtual machine boot time
o Login / logout times
How will the transition from pilot program to full production implementation be done?
Solution Overview
This X-Pod reference architecture white paper describes a compact configuration to deliver a high-
performance VDI environment that supports up to 850 virtual desktops. In the following sections, Cisco
UCS, Cisco Nexus, Cisco MDS, VMware vSphere, Citrix XenDesktop, and the ISE hybrid storage array
are described.
Components
The following components were chosen for this X-Pod reference architecture.
Cisco Unified Computing Systems (UCS)
The underlying premise of a VDI solution is to run user desktops on powerful datacenter servers rather
than on distributed physical machines. Cisco has focused on the characteristics needed to support this
functionality in datacenter servers and has developed the following innovations:
Extended memory
Virtualization optimization, with Cisco VN-Link technology
Unified I/O access and unified fabric
Unified, centralized management
Service profiles
The bottom line is that Cisco has developed and refined the Unified Computing System to specifically
meet the Enterprise VDI requirements. Simplified architecture and management geared toward
datacenter fulfillment of virtual desktops leads to reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) by lowering
acquisition costs, lowering operating costs, and lowering ongoing operational costs.
10. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 10
The UCS unites compute, network, storage access, and virtualization into a cohesive system. The system
is integrated on a low-latency, 10-Gigabit ethernet (10GbE) unified network fabric with enterprise-class,
x86-architecture servers. It is an integrated, multi-chassis platform in which all resources participate in a
unified management domain. The Cisco UCS accelerates the delivery of new services simply, reliably,
and securely through end-to end provisioning and migration support for both virtualized and non-
virtualized systems.
For more on UCS:
http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/unified-
computing/at_a_glance_c45-523181.pdf
Cisco Nexus
The Cisco Nexus 5548P is a one-rack-unit (1U), 1 GbE, 10 GbE, and FCoE access-layer switch built to
provide 960 Gbps of throughput with very low latency. It has 32 fixed, 1 GbE, or 10 GbE ports that accept
modules and cables meeting the Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (SFP+) form factor. One expansion
module slot can be configured to support up to 16 additional 1 GbE and 10 GbE ports or eight Fibre
Channel ports plus eight 1 GbE and 10 GbE ports. The switch has a single serial console port and a
single out-of-band 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet management port.
Cisco MDS
Cisco MDS 9148 Multilayer Fabric Switch is a high-performance Fibre Channel switch platform. It
provides low power consumption and high density, with up to 48 line-rate 8 Gbps ports in one rack unit
(1U).
Citrix XenDesktop
Citrix XenDesktop delivers Windows applications and desktops as secure mobile services. With
XenDesktop, IT can mobilize the business while reducing costs by centralizing control and security for
intellectual property. Incorporating the full power of XenApp, XenDesktop can deliver full desktops or just
the applications to any device. HDX technologies enable XenDesktop to deliver a native touch-enabled
look-and-feel that is optimized for the type of device as well as the network.
Citrix XenDesktop provides the best method available today to provision, host, manage, and deliver
virtual desktops and applications. Citrix has the benefit of 25 years of advanced expertise in optimizing
remote protocols and virtualizing user workloads.
User experience is greatly enhanced with Citrix XenDesktop by providing high-performance, 24x7 access
to all corporate applications and data from anywhere and from any type of device (PC, Mac, Linux,
Tablets, IOS, Android, etc.).
For the IT department, Citrix centralizes management in dramatically more efficient ways. Rather than
maintaining the legacy approach of installing and managing operating systems, applications, patches,
and customizations on every single device, Citrix allows a “One to Many” solution. A single desktop image
can serve hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of users, providing a single point of update for
the entire IT environment. At the same time, security and performance are greatly improved by keeping
the applications close to the data in the secure boundary of the data center.
11. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 11
X-IO Technologies Intelligent Storage Element (ISE)
Consolidation and business intelligence are key themes in today’s IT. Consolidation brings with it
challenges in server multi-tenancy and hosted desktops while database management systems become
the keys to a successful business. In both cases, fast and reliable solutions lead to a more productive and
profitable enterprise. The ISE 700 series hybrid storage system keeps pace with the performance
demands of today’s IT without the high cost it takes traditional storage systems to keep up. The ISE 700
series provides an ideal balance of price, performance, capacity, and reliability by combining SSD and
HDD into a single hybrid pool of capacity to provide SSD performance at HDD pricing. ISE outperforms
systems that are up to ten times more expensive and provides an outstanding TCO by reducing operating
costs associated with management, power, cooling, and datacenter footprint.
ISE Manager Suite
Enterprise storage is facing not only a challenging future but also a challenging present. Today’s
datacenters are increasingly heterogeneous and multifaceted. Virtualization technologies, diverse storage
platforms, and cloud services create obstacles for traditional storage systems and storage management.
How can you as a storage administrator be expected to efficiently and effectively manage storage in such
a complex environment? The answer lies in your management tools, which must have deep integration
with virtualization technologies and host operating systems while being precise, streamlined, and user-
friendly.
Ideal for the challenging storage scenarios of modern enterprises, ISE Manager 4.0 is the solution for
today and tomorrow. It is an intuitive, flexible interface that provides simplified end-to-end storage
management for multiple physical, virtual, and cloud environments from a single interface. It lets you
simplify, centralize, and automate storage administration with software tailored to modern datacenters.
Figure 1 - SE Manager Suite
12. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 12
Login VSI
Login Virtual Session Indexer (Login VSI) is the industry-standard load
testing tool for virtualized desktop environments. Login VSI can be used to
test the performance and scalability of VMware Horizon View, Citrix
XenDesktop and XenApp, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (Terminal
Services), or any other Windows-based virtual desktop solution. Login VSI
may be used to compare and validate the performance of different software
and hardware solutions in an environment. Login VSI provides a method to
measure the maximum capacity of an infrastructure. Simulated users work
with the same applications as an average employee, such as Word, Excel,
Outlook, and Internet Explorer.
For more information, download a trial at www.loginvsi.com.
13. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 13
Solution Architecture
This section highlights the hardware and software configurations used to assemble this reference
architecture for 350 and 500 virtual desktops delivered with Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 on vSphere 5.5 U1.
This environment was built on top of two Cisco UCS B-Series chassis, Cisco networking components,
and X-IO 700 Series hybrid storage arrays.
Figure 2 shows the logical diagram of the solution architecture for 350 and 500 hosted desktops. The
same infrastructure was used for all three tests.
Figure 2 - Logical Diagram for 350 and 500 Desktop Reference Architecture
14. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 14
Hardware Components
The following hardware components were leveraged to support the Login VSI test of the initial 500 and
750 desktop stress tests and the subsequent 350 and 500 VDI desktop loads.
Hardware Quantity Configuration
Servers
Cisco UCS 5100 B-Series Chassis 1 1 350 Desktop Cluster “Standard Performance”
2208XP Fabric I/O Extenders 2
Cisco UCS B200 M3 1 Two Intel Xeon E5-2680 2.7-GHz CPU
(16 cores total)
128 GB RAM
Infrastructure Blade
Cisco UCS B200 M3 7 Two Intel Xeon E5-2680 2.7-GHz CPU
(16 cores total)
128 GB RAM
vSphere desktop cluster
VIC 1280 8
Cisco UCS 5100 B-Series Chassis 2 1 500 Desktop Cluster “High Performance”
2208XP Fabric I/O Extenders 2
Cisco UCS B200 M3 8 Two Intel Xeon E5-2697 2.7-GHz CPU
(24 cores total)
256 GB RAM
vSphere desktop cluster
VIC 1280 8
Cisco UCS 5100 B-Series Chassis 3 1 Login VSI Infrastructure
2208XP Fabric I/O Extenders 2
Cisco UCS B440 1 Two Intel Xeon E7-4870 2.4-GHz CPU
(24 cores total)
256 GB RAM
Login VSI Server
UCS-VIC-M82-8P 1
Networking
Cisco Nexus 5548 2
Cisco MDS 9148 2 8 GB/s Fibre Channel Switch, 2 ports per ISE 700
Cisco UCS 6248 Fabric Interconnect 2
Storage
X-IO ISE 710 Hybrid Storage Array 1 8Gb/s Fibre Channel – for Boot from SAN Array
X-IO ISE 730 Hybrid Storage Array 1 8Gb/s Fibre Channel – for Login VSI Share
X-IO ISE 740 Hybrid Storage Array 1 8Gb/s Fibre Channel – for all XenDesktop machine
catalogs
15. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 15
Software Components
See the table below for software details.
Software Version
vSphere
ESXi 5.5 update 1
vCenter Server
Operating System
Microsoft .NET
Microsoft SQL Server
5.5 update 1
Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit Standard Ed.
3.5 SP1
2008 R2
Citrix XenDesktop
Desktop Controller
Operating System
7.5
Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit Standard Ed.
Provisioning Services
Operating System
7.1.3
Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit Standard Ed.
Microsoft Software Platforms
Active Directory, DNS, DHCP Windows Server 2012
Login VSI, VSIshare Server
Operating System Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit Standard Ed.
Microsoft .NET 3.5
Login VSI 4.0
Virtual Desktops: Target Desktop
Operating System Windows 7 32-bit
Microsoft Office 2010
Adobe Reader v. 11
Java SE 7 U13
DoroPDF
Citrix Reciever 4.1.2
Virtual Desktop: Launch Desktop
OS Windows 7 32 bit
Cisco Unified Compute System (UCS)
The Cisco UCS configuration was connected to X-IO ISE 700 storage arrays through dual, redundant
paths to the MDS 9148 switches, then connected to the Cisco 6248UP fabric interconnect with dual,
redundant 10 Gbps connections. This architecture provides for a highly available and high-performance
architecture.
Each Cisco UCS chassis was connected to each fabric interconnect with four 10-Gbps network
connections.
16. X-Pod for Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 16
The dual fabric interconnect pairs have primary and subordinate roles in this configuration. For more
information about optimizing and configuring the Cisco UCS server service profiles for VDI, please refer to
the following link:
http://www.cisco.com/go/unifiedcomputing
VMware vSphere 5
For this test configuration, the VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 1, ESXi hypervisor was deployed. All of the
hosts were set up to boot from SAN (optional) using the X-IO ISE 710 hybrid storage array.
Clusters
The environment is organized into three main components: the VDI clusters, management cluster, and
Login VSI Launcher cluster. Two VDI clusters encompass a total of 15 UCS blades and are responsible
for supporting all target virtual desktops and were tested until reaching server resource saturation. The
first VDI cluster of 8 nodes was tested at 500 desktops and found to run 350 VDI target desktops
proficiently. The second VDI cluster of 8 nodes was tested at 750 desktops and found to run 500 target
VDI desktops proficiently. One UCS blade (in its own cluster) is used to run all infrastructure functionality,
including a Domain Controller, vCenter, vCenter Operations Manager, and all XenDesktop infrastructure
servers. The last cluster, the Login VSI Launcher cluster, is a UCS blade that runs 80 Login VSI Launcher
desktops.
VDI Clusters
The two clusters under test in this reference architecture are the VDI clusters. They consist of 16 hosts,
as described in the “Hardware Components” section above. These work together to support the test loads
of 350 and 500 virtual desktop machines.
Figure 3 - VDI Cluster for 350 Desktops
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Figure 4 - VDI Cluster for 500 Desktops
Infrastructure
The Infrastructure UCS blade houses all virtual machines to support the vSphere environment, the Citrix
XenDesktop environment, and the Login VSI testing environment.
Figure 5 - Infrastructure VM for Reference Architecture Validation
XenDesktop Environment Architecture
The VDI environment in this solution is created and managed in XenDesktop 7.5. For the Provisioning
Services test, version 7.1.3 was used. Four Desktop Groups were created with four corresponding
Machine Catalogs: an MCS and PVS group each for the high-performance cluster and an MCS and PVS
group each for the standard performance cluster.
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For the Machine Creation Services tests, MCS was used from within the Desktop Controllers to deploy
and update the VMs. For the Provisioning Services tests, two PVS servers were used to deploy and host
images for the VMs. Both had a local store attached as a hard drive to each server, and images were
replicated between servers.
Datastores
The virtual machines in the 350 desktop VDI cluster were stored on four datastores, which are in turn stored
on four ISE LUNs. Each LUN is 1 TB in total capacity, configured with RAID-1 protection and housed on a
single ISE 740 hybrid storage array as shown in the following ISE Manager and vSphere Client figures.
Figure 6 - Datastores for 350 Desktop Groups
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Figure 7 - LUNs for 350 Desktop View Pools (ISE Manager)
The 500 VM Desktop Group is configured in the same manner. Below is a screen shot of the datastores as
they are configured.
Figure 8 - Datastores for 500 Desktop View Pools (vSphere Client)
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Target VMs
Base Image
OS Windows 7 32-bit, Enterprise
VM Hardware Version 8
vCPU 1
Memory 1.5 GB
HD – MCS 24 GB (Shared between VMs for OS)
HD – PVS 6 GB
The target desktop virtual machines are created from a base image. This image was created as a stock
Windows 7 32-bit Enterprise operating system. Windows updates were applied to bring it to the current
levels. Several applications were then installed, including Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and
FreeMind. The Citrix XenDesktop agent is installed on the gold image, and a snapshot or image upload is
created.
X-IO ISE 740 Hybrid Storage Array
The ISE 740 hybrid storage array has 28.8 TB of usable capacity configured from the highest-quality,
mission-critical 10K RPM SAS drives and enterprise-grade, MLC SSD into a single pool of flash-enabled
storage. The ISE 740 is fully redundant with active-active controllers, each including four 8 GB Fibre
Channel ports. The ISE 700 Series includes patented Continuous Adaptive Data Placement (CADP)
software, which analyzes the behavior of host I/O and automatically places hotspot data onto SSD only if
measurable performance gains will be achieved. CADP runs continuously and makes data movement
decisions every 5 seconds.
In each of the user tests the ISE 740 delivered low-latency read and write transactions for the entire
duration of the tests and project.
Figure 10 - The ISE 740 Hybrid Storage Array (VMware Ready and Cisco Compatible)
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Performance Analysis of Tested configurations
Test Methodology
While storage vendors have for years utilized synthetic benchmark tools (Iometer, SQLIO, fio, iozone) to
simulate performance loads, nothing can provide more insight into performance requirements than a
testing tool that replicates actual end-user usage. Testing in this “systems view” methodology allows for
many different facets of the solution to be evaluated, as different virtual desktop operations have
drastically different requirements from storage. Simply using a load generator to show the performance
possible from a storage array and somehow relating it to desktop virtualization workloads completely
ignores the challenges that are unique to this solution design.
Login VSI was used as the load generation tool, as this is capable of mimicking end-user functions, such
as working with Microsoft Office applications, running Java, browsing web pages, and other common user
functions. If the console is left open in one of the target desktops, this activity can be watched as the test
progresses. Login VSI provides a valuable framework to gather much more information than just the main
workload run, as will be detailed in the sections below. Other virtual desktop management operations
were also performed as part of the setup and environment maintenance throughout the testing period.
Performing these actions proved invaluable to learning about the different workloads involved in the
solution.
Testing to determine the scale of the ISE 740 storage array was one of the goals in the testing, and Login
VSI test runs were performed with 500 and 750 active users to determine maximum capacity, then further
testing was done within capacity and determined to reach server resource saturation at 350 and 500
active user desktops respectively. The “office worker” workload setting was used for this testing series, as
per Login VSI this can be considered an average workload for a virtual desktop user. Login VSI measures
the end-user desktop experience and produces a metric that is a measure of the amount of desktops that
a given solution could support with acceptable performance (VSImax). When VSImax is reached, that is
the estimated number of desktops the solution can be expected to support. In all testing performed, the
Cisco UCS CPU utilization was the main limiting factor to achieving higher numbers of desktops. The ISE
740 was able to accommodate all of the tested user levels with no signs of a performance limit being
approached.
Workload Analysis
Machine Creation Services Versus Provisioning Services
The primary focus of the workload analysis will be on how VMs deployed with Machine Creation Services
(MCS) use resources compared to VMs deployed with Provisioning Services (PVS). Both tools are
available for Citrix XenDesktop but operate in different manners that affect how they perform on similar
infrastructures.
To use MCS for the creation and management of your VDI objects, you create a gold image and then
create a snapshot of it. To deploy your objects, simply tell MCS which snapshot you wish to use on which
defined storage space. MCS will make a copy of the snapshot to each LUN, which acts as a “master”
image and then creates objects that will all use the master image on its LUN as its boot partition. MCS
then creates a small 16 MB drive for its identity disk and a second thin provisioned drive for writing
changes to the VM. MCS will handle load balancing for the initial deployment, evenly distributing the
required objects over all defined LUNs in the host entry used. There is no need for additional
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infrastructure to use MCS as it’s a function of the Desktop Controllers and built into the XenDesktop
Desktop Studio console.
For PVS, a gold image is still needed. However, instead of creating copies of that image that reside on
the LUNs, PVS uses tools to upload a copy of the gold image to a virtual disk it keeps on its own store.
The store can be local to the PVS server or mapped so that all PVS servers point to the same store. PVS
then creates objects that it manages through PXE boot infrastructure. These objects usually only contain
a small drive for identity management and write caching, typically 6 GB in size. Upon a successful PXE
boot, PVS will stream the OS from the image to the RAM of the object and manage its caching based on
the image setting. PVS requires additional infrastructure, namely PVS servers, and the PXE boot requires
DHCP configuration, the use of a boot ISO mapped to CDROM, or a boot disk built into the master
template. PVS is not as simple to use and manage as MCS, but its additional complexity leads to a
variety of more options for a flexible and dynamic environment designed for thousands of users.
For this reference architecture, two modes used for caching in PVS are reviewed: Cache to Hard Disk,
wherein the VM will write cached information directly to a 6 GB disk attached to the object, and a new
option with XenDesktop 7.x, Cache to RAM with overwrite to hard disk. Using this method, the VM
attempts to cache the OS into RAM first, and, as it needs to free up memory, writes the cached
information to the 6 GB attached disk.
Login VSI user Workload
All users in this reference configuration were logged in and simulated by Login VSI. The workload chosen
for each of the remote users in all tests was “office worker.”
Login VSI produces a metric called VSImax. This is a measure of the number of concurrent virtual
desktops that a given solution can support with “acceptable” desktop performance. Test iterations are
performed, and the goal is to closely match or exceed the number of desktops that are planned to be
concurrently run in production with the VSImax score.
Below are the results from the two test iterations (350 and 500 desktops). A clear, linear increase in the
VSImax score can be seen as the number of users was increased, indicating that the VDI solution was
able to accommodate the workload with no signs of encountering a performance bottleneck until 97% or
greater concurrency was achieved.
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Figure 9 - VSImax for 750 and 500 user tests – VSImax was a result of server resource saturation
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Because of the VSImax levels observed, to get a more accurate calculation of IOPS, further tests were
conducted with the following user loads:
High Performance PVS – 500 users
MCS – 450 users
Standard Performance PVS – 350 users
MCS – 350 users
Login VSI Steady-State Workload
In the graphs above, VSImax is encountered at 449 (MCS), 566 (PVS – C/HD), and 569 (PVS –
C/RAM/HD) for 750 session user tests, and 341 (MCS), 333 (PVS – C/HD), and 317 (PVS – C/RAM/HD)
for 500 user tests. This is due to the high resource utilization of the host servers in this configuration.
Figure 10 shows that the primary bottleneck is from CPU utilization. Once booted, there is very little
increase in memory utilization. Both PVS variations as well as the MCS tests showed very similar patterns
in host resource utilization.
Figure 10 - Server Resources During 750 User Test - PVS
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One of the things that makes the virtual desktop workload so challenging for storage solutions is the high
amount of write operations that are required, especially considering the write penalties involved with RAID
operations. During the steady-state testing, write operations to storage were observed to be 86% of the
total IOPS for PVS cache to RAM, overwrite to hard drive, and 90% for PVS cache to HD.
Below are graphs of the total ISE system I/O (write and read) in the six test runs. Write I/O can be clearly
seen dominating the workload mix for PVS, while read I/O dominates MCS because of the lack of
caching.
It was observed that write IOPS were higher in the login phase of the test run for PVS Cache to Hard
Drive and MCS. PVS cache to RAM, overwrite to HD remained at a steady rate throughout login and
steady-state login VSI tests and required the least amount of performance (IOPS) from the ISE 740
hybrid storage array.
Figure 11 - Login Phase and Steady State for PVS and MCS on High Performance
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Figure 18 shows that the ISE 740 array performed all of the write operations under 1 ms during the tests.
Values of below 1 ms are reported as 0ms, and, as such all three series can be viewed as having no
observable latency over 1 ms for the testing period.
Read latency is also an important measure of system performance, and increases in read latency were
observed in the MCS test due to the lack of desktop caching. The highest value was a spike observed in
the PVS cache to RAM, over write to HD desktop series, with consistently more reads observed in the
MCS series with 95% of the average values below 1 ms. The majority of the PVS cache to RAM, over
write to HD was below 2 ms, with 99% below 1 ms. PVS cache to HD had more spikes, but all below 2
ms, with most below 1 ms. MCS, while more read intensive, was consistently at 1 ms, with occasional
spikes to 2 ms.
Figure 12 - Write Latency for PVS and MCS on High Performance
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Figure 13 - Read Latency for PVS and MCS on High Performance
Read latency is the value that will react first when increasing load on the storage system. However, the
amount of read IOPS comprises a small percentage of the overall workload for PVS scenarios. For MCS,
read latency plays the more critical factor.
The ISE 740 hybrid storage array demonstrated that it was able to satisfy the Login VSI workloads up to
the point of saturation (100% utilization) for the Cisco UCS CPU resources of the 16 blade servers. If
large volumes of users are logging in/out of the environment concurrently, storage performance will play
an important role.
Virtual Desktop Deployment Operations
Deployment operations are something that every environment must go through. Whether performing the
initial creation of the desktops or having to add capacity during production hours, it is vital that the impact
to the infrastructure is known to the administrator.
PVS deploys in a routine manner that offers the least impact to performance. A VM is cloned, booted for
differential operations, then shut down. This occurs in a production line manner, with one clone operation
occurring after another has finished. At any time there is one cloning and 2-4 VMs booted up for the
differential operations. It should be noted that this takes the longest time to complete.
MCS creates VMs in a different fashion. The “gold image” is copied to all datastores available in the
cluster as defined in the Desktop Controller. This causes a burst of write activity while the gold images are
created. Once done, VMs are created on each datastore and booted to complete differential operations,
creating a second burst of activity. While “chattier” in terms of IOPS, it completes in a significantly faster
time frame than PVS deployments.
If there is a need to regularly deploy new VMs during production hours, PVS will have the least impact.
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The deploy operation performance requirements are biased towards storage write IOPS, at just over 70%
of the workload. Average values for total storage IOPS demand were seen to regularly approach 2,000
IOPS for PVS and MCS on average, with high values approaching 6,000 IOPS for PVS and 3,500 for
MCS. This process operates over all of the VM “active” data set size and generates I/O across all of the
new desktop capacity.
Figure 14 - ISE 740, Total Read and Write IOPS During Deploy Operations
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Response time is also an important measure to examine when performing system “stress testing.” The
deploy process is one example of what a virtualization administrator may conduct to prove out storage
systems being proposed for VDI deployments. The ISE 740 shows excellent read and write response for
this workload, with the majority of the write and read latency values below 1ms and 4ms for PVS and
below 9 ms and 12 ms for MCS respectively.
The reduction in read and write latency seen at the beginning of the test run is due to the ISE
management of data to SSD in real time. This is Continuous Adaptive Data Placement (CADP) in action,
as it learns the workload and automatically optimizes for best performance.
Figure 15 - Read and Write Latency During Deploy Operation
When images were updated, the method used by MCS was identical to a deployment, wherein the gold
image was copied to datastores and then each VM was updated to point to the new image and booted to
perform differential operations with the updated OS. In contrast, an update on PVS was identical to a
normal boot operation since there is no need to copy data to the datastores as the image resides on the
PVS server store. This resulted in significantly lower IOPS activity for the PVS image update process.
Virtual Desktop Boot Storm
The virtual machine boot process was the most taxing on the CPU utilization. The figure below shows the
processor and memory utilization of a single blade server during this process. CPU utilization reaches
saturation (100%) as the different pools of desktops are booted. Limiting the desktop pool sizes should be
considered, as this can limit the impact and duration of the event if an entire desktop pool needs to be
booted or rebooted.
The boot process focused heavily on read IOPS, which dominated over 90% of the time. Initially, there is
a large read workload, followed by write IOPS in PVS as information begins to be written to cache. Total
IOPS during this period were observed to reach above 80,000 IOPS for MCS and 20,000 IOPs for PVS.
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Figure 16 - Total Read and Write IOPS During Boot Storm
Figure 17 - Total IOPS and KB/s for Boot Storm
Response times of the ISE 740 were well within what would be considered normal for database
operations, proving that the ISE was not approaching any limit in performance for this operation. As
shown below, the greatest latency was seen in the MCS boot storm, where writes reached 4 ms and
reads up to 10 ms. PVS never exceeded 2 ms.
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Figure 18 - Read and Write Latency During Boot Storm
Boot storms are traditionally extremely difficult for storage systems to keep up with. The broad range of
read vs. write requirements, while requiring high-performance IOPS, are usually where most storage
systems have significant issues. In this test, the main limiting factor was the Cisco UCS CPU resources
as all servers were pushed to 100% CPU utilization. When planning for numbers of consecutive desktops
that can be safely started at the same time, careful attention should be paid to the processor utilization of
the ESXi servers after high-performance storage is implemented (such as the ISE 740 hybrid storage
array).
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Appendix
Appendix A: IOPS Comparison
MCS
PVS, Cache to
HD
PVS, Cache to
RAM, o/w to HD
Boot Storm Max per VM 82 19 20
Average per VM 7 7 2
Login Max per VM 34 12 2
Average per VM 8 4 0.5
Steady Operating State Max per VM 18 8 1.5
Average per VM 4 3 0.5
Deploy * Max 3376 6120 Not performed **
Average 1647 625 Not performed **
* Because of the clustered nature of the deployment for MCS,
the max and average are presented for the whole duration rather than per VM.
** Since changing between the two PVS modes is a small administrative setting, deploying VMs
with the Cache to RAM, overwrite to HD was not
performed.